1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a water application unit for automatically applying water onto a sheet being transferred.
2. Related Art
In general, in the case where a sender sends a large number of various documents, direct mails or the like to a large number of receivers by mail in an envelope, an envelope sheet is folded up into an envelope shape and automatically sealed, or the flap portion of an envelope is folded up and automatically sealed.
At this time, a remoistenable glue portion is previously attached to a predetermined adhesion position on the sheet such as the envelope sheet or the envelope, in some cases. The remoistenable glue portion is used for automatic adhesion of the predetermined adhesion position on the sheet.
The remoistenable glue portion is formed with an adhesive material such as mucilage, and water is automatically applied onto this remoistenable glue portion by a water application unit configured to wet the remoistenable glue portion for adhesion.
Meanwhile, various sealing devices for automatically sealing envelopes are proposed. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2012-45754 proposes a sealing device provided with a water application unit configured to apply water onto a remoistenable glue portion previously attached to a flap portion of the envelope, while sliding the envelope in one direction by a guide unit.
Although illustration is omitted herein, the water application unit provided in the sealing device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2012-45754 includes: a reservoir pooling water; and a moisturizing unit which is made of, for example, a wound nonwoven fabric, a sponge, or the like capable of absorbing water by capillary action, and which is immersed in the reservoir and provided to be capable of facing a remoistenable glue portion previously attached to a flap portion of an envelope.
The envelope is sealed by automatically applying water by the moisturizing unit of the water application unit onto the remoistenable glue portion previously attached to the flap portion of the envelope while sliding the envelope in one direction on the guide unit.